And all that remains is the memory
by thedreaminus
Summary: Frankenstein had many things he repented in life but this one tore him up inside. This is a AU One Shot.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Noblesse. The Story in the Characters belongs to Son Je Ho and Lee Gwang Su.

 **Summary:** Frankenstein had many things he repented in life but this one tore him up inside. This is a AU One Shot.

 **Notes:** After eternally long time I am back! But my exams are over (my life is still hectic) and I have now (a little) more time and head to write. I will soon post more chapter from my other story but right now, please enjoy this short Frankenstein story. Have fun^^

As always a big thank to **Pandora-Twist** for the correction and the support!

And another big thank goes to **o-c-o-c** for the Fanart! ( .com)

* * *

Ten minutes and thirty four seconds to midnight. His eyes followed the second hand of his wrist watch. Slowly he pulled the sleeve of his heavy jacket down again. This far in the north, even in spring, people wore thick clothing to protect themselves from the cold. Not that he needed it, his modification was far too advanced, but it could raise unnecessary questions if he appeared to be clothed too lightly.

At this time, only a few people were on the road. Nevertheless, he greeted all those who came to meet him as he walked across the snow and ice covered cobblestones of the street. The men with a polite nod, the women with a charming smile. Only with the children, it was still hard for him. Today the sight was especially stifling. It was another day when the memories rose from the depths of his being, and plagued him.

He stopped for a moment, and looked at his reflection in the window of one of the countless, now closed, street shops. A pair of tired, blue eyes returned his gaze and he noticed that his pupils were thinner than usual for a human being.

He was relieved that Muzaka had appeared a few days ago, and taken his Master on one of his journeys. Now, his thoughts would not burden Master, who himself was suffering enough under the memories without having to sympathize with his faithful Servant. _Dark Spear_ responded to his emotions and gnawed at the edge of his mind.

As a rule, he accompanied Master on these kinds of journeys, which had developed as a kind of solid tradition from Muzaka. Just to make sure Master was not missing anything. But recently, severe flu epidemic had broken out in the city and the surrounding area where his Master and he were living. As a doctor, he could not possibly neglect his duties, despite the fact that the disease was gradually weakening. So, with a sharp rebuke to Muzuka to take good care of his Master he let them leave.

Even then his mood had been bad, and his tone was probably sharper than necessary, for Muzaka had only grunted tirelessly without trying to provoke him as he would have otherwise. Muzaka bore no responsibility for his mood. However, he could never suppress the memory of a certain person when he saw the werewolf, and there were days when he did not know if he should be happy about Muzakas visits.

With a heavy sigh, Frankenstein rubbed his hair back and looked up at the sky. They actually led a good life, a peaceful life. In a few decades, he could begin to build Ye Ran as he remembered it, and his Master could meet the children a little later. The children from Lukedonia would also join in.

But the trio of modified people will not...

He clenched his teeth tightly and suppressed the burning feelings of guilt, and hopelessness that plagued him with this thought. His Master should not be burdened by it...

How long had it been? He had to laugh, because this thought alone was illogical. Because in the real sense it had never happened, and only the images in his memory were true witness for something that had been or could have been!

Those stupid children. His foolish children, had used a power they could never understand. The consequences they could never correctly grasp! And if he had only take better care in his future, they would be still alive. _No_. Then they would still _exist_ now.

He cut into his own flesh, so firmly his hand was clenched into fist, and almost automatically, steered his steps out of the city to avoid becoming dangerous to anyone. He remembered the moment he had woken up in his old lab. Screaming and clutching his head, trying to stop someone from doing something unbelievably stupid. His head swarming with the pictures of a life so incomprehensible that it could only be the product of a confused dream. And for a long time he was not sure what to make of it until he met his Master, exactly how the unreal dream had prophesied.

A glance into his eyes had been sufficient, and the contract between them was forged even before he entered Lukedonia for the first time. It was then that he had accepted that his dream was not a dream, but memories of another life in another future. Memories that he shared with his Master, and Muzaka, who had sought him at the request of his Master. Because three living beings of three different species sharing the same dream was somehow less likely than the alternative.

A fact that brought the bitter loss again to his mind. M-21, Tao and Takeo... they had given them a new future that they could guide with their memories. They paid a terrible price for that. No matter how peaceful this future would be, none of them would ever know.

The tool which the ancestors of Nobles and Werewolves had created, so old that no one could remember for what purpose... An unbelievable power, whose use seemed to be tied to hundreds of operations he himself did not fully understand. It had taken their existence as a prize for this new future. As if fictitious characters were deleted from a story…

And all that remained was the memory of it... and the knowledge that he could have stopped them. They were his kids. He had taken them under his care. He had been responsible for them, and he should never have allowed them to take such an action. As if it wasn't enough that his research had made it possible for the Union to torture these children on the first place. The peaceful life they earned was also torn through his fault.

Now it was too late. Much, much too late, and on days like this, when the memory of the events troubled him greatly, he could only curse their names, and thank them at the same time. He would spend the rest of his life trying to make sure their sacrifice was not in vain. It was the least he could do.

Frankenstein was at the river now, and looked down at the surface of the slowly flowing water. There were scattered ruins around him. Remnants of a flooding years ago where it was not worthwhile to rebuild the dilapidated houses. So the people had left the village to its fate, and everywhere the eye could see, the nature was about to conquer their property. His agitated emotions slowly receded as he watched the water, but the loss and a deep melancholy remained.

Alone he stood on the riverbank until a few hours before sunrise. It begun to snow. Not unusual for spring this far north. Frankenstein looked at the thick flakes as they descended. Did he ponder again all night? His Master would not like this if he came to know. A fond smile crept over his lips. Cadis Etrama Di Raizel blamed himself just like Frankenstein, but he was convinced that Trio had acted on their own will and knowledge, and they did not doubt their decision.

Frankenstein shook his head and turned around. After all, patients would be waiting for him again. Just when he was about to leave he felt it. Someones eyes on him.

He wrinkled his brow and looked through the darkness toward the ruins. The presence was ... strange. It was not a human, but it reminded him of one. So a modified human? This was more than unusual, the Union certainly had other problems than to pursue him, and how could they have found him here? In addition, the aura...

He walked slowly towards the ruins and saw a small shadow scurrying between two houses. An animal? No, that looked more like a child. Anger stirred inside Frankenstein. Had the Union or someone else been experimenting with people around here without his knowledge?

He turned round the corner. In the midst of broken stones, wood trunks and other trash, a wooden barrel laid on the ground, half overtaken by weed. He could hear quick breaths and knelt down to check, but the weed prevented a direct look into the barrel.

"It's all right" Frankenstein could hear the person holding in breath in fright, "You can come out. I will not hurt you" he said reassuringly. Finally, a pair of eyes looked out of the barrel. It was probably just imagination or wishful thinking that stirred the memory of a particular person within him, but the eyes that met him were bright, light gray.

"Come out," He repeated in a husky voice, trying to keep his emotions under control.

The child hesitated, Frankenstein could hear the writhing back and forth in the barrel. Then, very slowly, a little head poked out of the barrel hesitantly and sensing no danger crawled the rest of the way out. It was a boy. Maybe four or five years old, accompanied in rags, thin and incredibly filthy. The lips and fingers were already blue by the cold, but that was not what shocked Frankenstein the most. It was the short gray hair, and the thinly compressed mouth with the characteristic _scar_ on the right side. It was the stubborn look in the well known gray eyes took his breath away.

He trembled and squeezed his eyes for a moment. The shock was too great for him to conceal. This child looked like _M-21_. The thought was absolutely ridiculous! M-21 was _dead_. His existence _extinguished_ , there was _no_ possibility that he could exist in this present. Frankenstein struggled with self-control, forced a gentle smile on his lips, and raised the first question that came to him in this situation.

"What are you doing out here, boy?"

The child did not answer. Instead, his face showed the dark, thoughtful expression that Frankenstein remembered all too well. The child titled his head aside, and studied him. His expressions changed back and forth between thoughtfulness, confusion, and uncertainty. A painful weight swelled in his chest.

"What are you doing out here?" Frankenstein tried again. "Where are you from, and what is your name?"

The boy seemed more insecure with each question, and Frankenstein noticed that he was trembling with cold. Mentally scolding himself for overlooking it, Frankenstein took off his jacket. But just as he was about to put the jacket around the boy, he opened his mouth.

"Fra… Franken….stein?" The boy gnawed his lower lip uncertainly, his eyes twitching nervously as he waited for his reaction.

"How ..." Frankenstein froze in his movement, his coat dangling in his hand. What was _that_? He swallowed, and took a deep breath. "How do you know this name?"

"I ..." uncertainty and confusion was showing again in the boys eyes, "I don't know"

"Where are you from?"

"I don't know"

"What is your name?"

He looked down as the child raised his arm and stared at his wrist as if something was supposed to be written there. But the wrist was empty. The gesture alone made Frankensteins heart take a small leap. The boy opened and closed his mouth. He rubbed his skin with his thumb, and his insecurity increased even more. "I don't know," he replied again, his voice sounding frightened, the gray eyes looked up at him imploringly, "Frankenstein?"

The man wrapped his winter coat around the lean body and lifted the boy to his chest. The child was still trembling and immediately clapped his pale fingers into his shirt as if to make sure that Frankenstein will not drop him, again. The aura, the appearance, the behavior. Everything was same, but this should be was impossible. Just as he had resigned himself to the fate that he would never see his children again, one appeared before him. In a shape he had never thought possible. The parallels were too great to be coincidence.

"All right," muttered the blond man, as he pulled the overcoat slightly higher to shield the boy from the cold. "Everything will be fine," he promised the child nestled against him and gently rested his head on his shoulder.

This time he would make sure his son had a safer future.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes:** So, although I wanted to make this as a short story is here a continuation. Let's let little M-21 meet his second daddy.

* * *

A bath. That was all Frankenstein could think of when he opened the door to his apartment. Just the thought of how dirty the boy was made all his neck hair stand at attention. He would have run, but M-21 was asleep in his arms. In order not to wake him up, and against his urge to throw the little one into a tub full of water, Frankenstein moved relatively slowly, trying not to make hasty movements as he carried the boy through the light snowstorm to his present house.

The heavy gate creaked and swung behind him as he made it to the front lawn of the house. Behind another door began the living area, where the stairs led to the upper floor and the basement. Frankenstein stopped for a moment to peel off his shoes and put on his slippers before heading off to the bathroom.

Electric light and running water were rarity in this century and reserved for the upper class. But Frankenstein led a doctor's office and his master lived with him. He had modernized the house with his own hands and equipped it to his requirements. So he did not have to fill the water in the bath by hand, but he had to ignite the fire in the oven to heat water the old fashioned way. M-21 woke up and turned slightly in his arms, pressing his face to his neck and breathing hard.

Concerned, Frankenstein carefully pushed his hand under the cloak and felt his pulse, the child's wrist was much too thin. In worry his doctor's side felt every bone and noticed that there were more bumps than he had anticipated earlier. He put M-21 down on the floor and took off his coat. Only the fact that he threw the garment sloppily to a corner showed how agitated he was inwardly. Frankenstein took a deep breath and forced a gentle smile to his lips.

"Do you agree with me bathing you?" He asked M-21 gently. The boy frowned and looked to the bathtub, then he nodded slowly and did not resist as Frankenstein took off his tattered top.

Mentally, Frankenstein noted down everything he saw, beginning with how weak the boy was up to the blisters, scratches, and similar imprints on his wrists. An ankle was still wrapped around a thin wire, and Frankenstein had to put M-21 into the warm water until the scalp to get rid of the mud, and then he removed the wire as painlessly as possible.

All the while, the boy did not talk, leaving Frankenstein cautiously washing him with a soft sponge until the bath water was dirty. Every now and then he looked up with tired eyes at the blond man and then let his head hang again.

Frankenstein asked no questions. He could not, not at the sight of him. M-21 seemed so exhausted and done, but although he was torn between fear and trust, his confidence prevailed. Frankenstein would wait until M-21 had recovered and ready to talk. He had time, a lot of time and he would give M-21 as much as he needs.

-.-.-.-.

The big wall clock in the dining room hit 2 AM. It's deep sound echoed through the house to the bedroom. Two hours after midnight. Frankenstein mentally made a note while his gaze rested on the small figure that was sleeping besides him, trying to embrace his head pillow and not to let go of his thumb at the same time.

On the edge of the mattress laid a bowl with used towels, associations and other medical paraphernalia with which he had treated the injury. Even in half-darkness he could see the wound on the ankle, which was healing to his relief, much faster than usual with a normal person. Just like the other spots and scratches.

From this, the conclusion was that the injuries could not be too old.

Frankenstein cracked his fingers dangerously. What bastard had dared? Whoever it was. He would find him and make him pay. The mere thought of what had to have happened made his blood boil.

Out of bed a whimper was heard as if the little boy could feel his anger, which was likely. What was unlikely were the increasingly dark voices in his mind about the culprit, after he had tried so hard to tame himself these past few centuries. For the sake of his master, he controlled his temper. He cautiously freed his thumb from the firm grip of the little hand and covered the boy more thoroughly with the blanket to give him something else to focus on.

Countless thoughts circled his head. How was it possible that M-21 still existed? The fact that they were all in a different future was beyond question. So M-21 had to have paid the price in the form of having his existence extinguished, right? It could, of course, be that he had mis-translated the symbols on that thing and looking for it now was impossible since his master, Muzaka the former lord and he personally, had sealed it centuries ago.

But even if he had misunderstood something, what price had M-21 paid? Where did he come from? Above all, so suddenly and seemingly with memories of him? Where did his injuries come from? Where had he been? To what extend was he still the M-21 he remembered? And if M-21 actually existed in this future, what about Tao and Takeo?

These were questions that probably only M21 could answer. He still had work to do. Frankenstein opened the balcony door, which led to the generous garden. He glanced back before he stepped out to assure himself that the boy still slept peacefully in the bed.

 **"Master"**

 **"Frankenstein"**

The answer came immediately. Frankenstein could feel how worried his master was about him. The last hours had just not been eventless and anger still burned in his veins. It was not hidden from his master.

 **"Something happened. I therefore ask you for a quick return"**

His master was troubled that he did not tell him the reason. Frankenstein gave him a series of emotions to show that there was no danger and yet it was urgent. Cadis Etrama di Raizel reacted with a hesitant agreement.

 **"Please trust me"** Frankensein was ashamed. How confusing were the emotions he had harassed his master with, that he was hesitant about his statement?

 **"It's not up to me, Frankenstein"**

 **"Master?"**

 **"Muzaka is ... gone"** his master responded and he could feel his uncertainty clearly.

Frankenstein's hands clenched and he clung to the stone railing as a dozen scenarios hovered in his head about his poor master, who was somewhere alone in a distant country.

 **"He said he will not be away for long"** Raizel tried to appease his servant as he saw Frankenstein's growing panic and feelings of guilt.

 **"I hope for his sake"**

 **"Frankenstein?"**

 **"If he is not back in a few minutes, he will be castrated"**

 **"..."**

-.-.-.-.

"Take two of them a day, preferably at breakfast and dinner, then your cough should soon no longer be a problem. If it does not improve, please come back to me"

"Of course, doctor"

Frankenstein smiled and gave a middle-aged woman a small piece of paper. The woman thanked him and said good-bye, not before she had casted an almost maternal look at the boy who was sleeping on one of the couches.

"The child is unimaginably lucky to meet you doctor. Really sad how some parents nowadays treat their children" With these words the good lady left him and Frankenstein closed the door behind her. With a soft sigh, he turned and went to the couch, looking at the peaceful, sleeping face of the little one.

Not exactly a perfect solution, but for the moment all resources for a different one were missing. M-21 was in a disturbingly fragile state, and he always slept, despite his rapid healing. Only when he gave him something to eat did he stay awake for a few minutes. And whenever he let him out of his sight for a few seconds, he would wake up completely distraught, and it would take him a long time to calm him down again. He had spent the rest of the night preparing the house and the clinic with the sleeping boy in his arms. Thankfully, he was modified, otherwise his arm would have fallen off.

With a practiced handle he put a compress around the thin arm and took a regular blood test of M-21. This happened very quickly, and M-21 merely gave an indignant snort before turning around and simply falling asleep again. Frankenstein labeled the vial with the blood test and put it alongside the others he had taken. He would like to investigate M-21 more closely, but this clinic was too small and his next best laboratory was in Lukendonia.

However, there was a positive aspect. Because M-21 was seen by the patient in his practice practically all day, the news spread rapidly throughout the city. Whoever was the person M-21 had escaped from, Frankenstein assumed would come directly to him if he wanted the boy back. That saved him the search for now.

A familiar presence was noticeable. Frankenstein paused, his hand hovering over the utensils he was cleaning. As for the confirmation, he heard the soft creak of the wooden floor and a door was slammed opened. His master was brought back, together with Muzaka who did not manage to be quiet as per usual. Carefully, he dried the last utensil before he stepped to M-21 and raised the boy wrapped in a blanket. M-21 sniffed and rubbed his face against Frankenstein's shoulder.

What would happen now? Frankenstein wondered. M-21 remembered his name and had also personally addressed him, otherwise he would not have been so confident that it was him. But could he remember his master as well? Cadis Etrama di Raizel had been the one who awakened M-21 heart. His skill for healing showed Frankenstein that at least this aspect was still present.

Deliberately Frankenstein touched the brass knob of the door and opened it. His master and Muzaka were in the hall, it looked they had been waiting for him to come up to them.

"Master, Muzaka" Frankenstein greeted the two.

"Frankenstein?" Raizel's eyes were immediately on the child. Frankenstein felt his master's curiosity and confusion as he, like his servant, perceived the familiar feeling of M-21's aura. As for the keyword, M-21 stirred in his arms. Frankenstein did not hesitate for more than a second and simply handed M-21 to his master.

They had lived among people for decades and Raizel knew how people carried their children in their arms, he had seen it often enough. Even if somewhat clumsily, he reacted out when his servant gave him the child. Then his eyes widened and he sucked in a breath. He looked at Frankenstein who could only nod in confirmation.

When M-21 grunted and rubbed his eyes, Raizel's gaze immediately returned to him. The little one opened his eyes and blinked, looked around and looked back up at his master. At first, M-21 seemed uncertain just like when he had met Frankenstein. But then a faint smile spread on his face. Frankenstein could not help but smile himself as M-21 addressed his master with the one name which means so much to him. The name the children had given him.

"Rai"


End file.
